Humanities Fellowships and Grants

Public Humanities projects can span a wide variety of types, from community-partnered research initiatives to humanities works destined for public audiences. UF is also a member of Imagining America, a national consortium of universities committed to the liberatory practice of the arts, humanities, and design. Learn more about the UF Imagining America Working Group and how Imagining America can support your public humanities work.

Support for Public Speakers & Workshops

• Support for Workshops and Speaker Series in the Humanities – The UF Humanities Center sponsors collaborative exchanges between faculty and students by supporting workshops and speaker series that  invite innovative faculty from outside the University to participate in interdisciplinary collaborations with resident faculty, students, and members of the wider community.

Public Humanities Research Fellowships & Grants

• The American Philosophical Association Berry Fund is inviting applications for the Berry Fund to support the APA committee on public philosophy, which works to find and create opportunities to demonstrate the personal value and social usefulness of philosophy.

• The Bob Graham Center for Public Service awards research grants to UF faculty and students for a variety of research projects that invigorate the civic culture of Florida and U.S. communities.
• NEH Public Scholar Program – This annual award supports faculty and independent scholars in the completion of projects directed toward a general audience.
• Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship– Established in 1967, the International Affairs Fellowship (IAF) is the hallmark fellowship program of CFR. It aims to bridge the gap between the study and making of U.S. foreign policy by creating the next generation of scholar-practitioners. The program offers its fellows the unique chance to experience a new field and gain a different perspective at a pivotal moment in their careers. Academics are thus placed in public service and policy-oriented settings, while government officials are placed in scholarly settings. Over the years, the IAF program has produced approximately six hundred alumni that span the who’s who of the U.S. foreign policy community, including a former secretary and several undersecretaries of state, U.S. ambassadors to NATO and the United Nations, and many other influential leaders in government, academia, and the private sector.
• FL Humanities: Community Project Grants support humanities-based learning experiences. In public humanities programming funded through this grant, Floridians are encouraged to engage in thoughtful reflection, analysis, and consideration of important topics relevant to local communities, and the state writ large. This funding opportunity aims to increase public participation in — and access to — the humanities by providing relevant, engaging, and meaningful humanities-based programming to all.
• John Nicholas Brown Center Public Humanities Fellowship (The John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Brown University) – Up to three-month fellowships are offered to encourage thoughtful reflection on issues of concern to the public humanities and to connect cultural organizations and the public. These fellowships provide a stipend, office space, and access to Brown University resources.
• Publicly Active Graduate Education (Imagining America) – Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) broadens notions of scholarship and professionalization within the academy by supporting graduate students and early-career scholars pursuing publicly-engaged academic work in the arts, humanities, and design. One-year fellowships include travel assistance to a Fellows Summit and the annual conference, commitment to participate in a year-long working group, and presentation of one’s related work.
• Public Humanities Graduate Fellowship (Center for the Humanities, University of WI-Madison) – The Fellowship creates conditions under which humanists can reach larger and more diverse audiences; influence public discussions of contemporary issues; and make scholarship in the humanities more accessible.
• The Roddenberry Fellowship – The Roddenberry Fellowship is a new 12-month program for activists from across the country who are working to protect the most vulnerable and to make the US a more inclusive and equitable place to live. Twenty Fellows will be selected to receive $50,000 each, as well as tailored support, to help implement a project or initiative in one of four areas: Civil Rights, Climate Change and Environmental Justice, Immigration and Refugee Rights, or LGBTQIA and Women’s Rights. The Foundation does not aim to dictate how Fellows plan to bring about change on a chosen issue. It’s up to each Fellow, but the foundation is interested in impact. The foundation also favors innovative approaches: projects that push boundaries, are cross-sectoral, challenge tradition, seek new ways of approaching systemic and entrenched problems, or leverage specific (timely) opportunities in unconventional ways.
• Simons Public Humanities Fellowship (Hall Center for the Humanities, The University of Kansas) – This innovative program brings one Simons Fellow to the Hall Center and KU to participate in the intellectual life of the university for a period ranging from one month to one semester.
• Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship – The Whiting Foundation invites selected schools to nominate up to two humanities professors for the Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship. This program is intended to celebrate and empower faculty who embrace public engagement as part of the scholarly vocation.

Public Program Development

• Programs in the Public Humanities Grants – The UF Humanities Center sponsors community-partnered projects and events that forefront audiences in North Central Florida.
• MLA Public Humanities Incubator – This program assigns participants with mentors active in the public humanites to envision their research as contributions to the public.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities has a Public Programs division that supports a wide range of public humanities programs, especially for projects that make use of new and emerging technologies. These are excellent opportunities to collaborate with libraries, museums, and other cultural organizations. Funding opportunities include the Public Humanities Projects grants, which offers both planning and implementation grants, for exhibitions at museums, libraries, historic sites and historical and cultural organizations. In addition, the NEH supports radio and television programs that explore significant events, figures, and developments in the humanities through the Media Project grants.
• The National Endowment for the Arts offers Challenge America Grants that support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations — those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.
• The El-Hibri Foundation provides grant support for nonprofit organizations advancing inclusion, building capacity, and organizing Muslim American communities.
• Florida Division of Cultural Affairs – In addition to its grants and recognition, the Division supports projects to advance arts and culture in the Sunshine State.
• Florida  Humanities Council – Grants provide support for humanities projects on a wide variety of topics and formats.
• American Express Historical Conservation and Preservation supports organizations and projects that preserve or rediscover major historic sites and monuments in order to provide ongoing sustainable access and enjoyment for current and future audiences. The programs we support include historic landmarks and public spaces. They emphasize preserving sites that represent diverse cultures.
• VisitGainesville offers a Tourist Product Development Grant to enhance established events and create new products that have the demonstrated potential to contribute to Alachua County’s tourism economy.
• The Awesome Foundation  is a global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time. Every chapter interprets “awesome” for itself. As such, awesome projects include initiatives in a wide range of areas including arts, technology, community development, and more.

K-12 Education and Training

• Summer Seminars and Institutes (NEH) – These grants support faculty development programs in the humanities for school teachers and for college and university teachers, from two week to five weeks in duration.
• Teaching American History (TAH, U.S. Department of Education) – The program is designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers’ knowledge and understanding of and appreciation for traditional U.S. history. Grant awards will assist LEAs, in partnership with entities that have content expertise, to develop, document, evaluate, and disseminate innovative and cohesive models of professional development.

Awards

• National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards (The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, NEA, NEH, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services) – Yearly applications are invited from after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs sponsored by museums, libraries, educational institutions (e.g., preschools; elementary, middle, and high schools; universities; and colleges), and other organizations.
• National Council on Public History Awards – A variety of awards, ranging from Excellence in Consulting, to Outstanding Public History Project, to article and book prizes, are offered yearly.
• Américo Paredes Prize (American Folklore Society) – This $200 award is given every year to recognize excellence in integrating scholarship and engagement with the people and communities one studies, or in teaching and encouraging scholars and practitioners to work in their own cultures or communities. Nominations are due in August of each year.

See also our listing of Main Funding Bodies in the Humanities, Digital Humanities funding, and funding opportunities for Documentary and Film Support.